The Big Sweaty Weekly: February 2013

I got a job! Woohoo! One that I am really happy about too! In November I began speaking and meeting with a local company called 17 Triggers. They are a small, relatively new company that harnesses the power of marketing and behavior change for good. Lately they are doing more video work, so we have been mutually excited to find one another.

For at least the next couple of months, I am working solely on a 6 country (Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Indonesia) climate change campaign. We're developing the creative now, which will be modified for each country, and will start looking for local partners to hopefully launch this summer. We're modeling some of the country plans on a No Impact Week scenario. Needless to say, it feels very warm and fuzzy to be throwing myself into work that really means something. Hopefully by July we will have put an end to climate change, and all will be well!

Gavin also started doing regular clinical work last week, which is really nice. He had been pursuing some volunteer time at Calmette Hospital, and it finally worked out that he could start. It's been exciting, to say the least.... The first day summary went something like this: Went to hospital after work from NAMRU; doctor who he was supposed to meet was nowhere to be found; told to go see patients with no idea what the hospital systems were; realized that all charts and basic medicine were in French (most Cambodian doctors do at least a portion of their training in France and the hospitals reflect a French system); wishes he could speak at least one of the primary languages involved; very sweaty; asks for a white coat to at least give him the appearance of legitimacy, is given one that would be small on a jockey; didn't kill anyone; came home. So he'll be doing that two days a week. We're telling ourselves how much he'll grow through the experience, but currently it's mainly an exercise in living an anxiety dream.

So thats the short story for us! Daisy still just eats the same kibble twice a day and is pumped about it. Between kibble she goes for walks, chases lizards, and bombs the house with hair.

Happy Valentines Day everybody!

I should basically rename this blog The Big Sweaty Whenever I Feel Like It. Sorry about that. The truth of it is that a. I am inherently lazy, and b. we're just really boring. When you go to bed on average at 930pm, and don't have things like kids doing and saying business to tell other people about, it doesn't leave much room for inspiration to regale. However, we have finally amassed enough "stuff done" that I feel like writing! I have so many pictures to post, that I will try to keep the word part as short as possible. I probably should have made Gavin write this.

Fantastic visit from friends! Chris and Monisha headed our way for their belated honeymoon, which was basically a magical month-long trip around Southeast Asia. They started with a couple of days in Phnom Penh and then we all headed to Ho Chi Minh for New Years. We had tried to find somewhere in Cambodia to post up for the holiday, but since there is limited tourism development, places to stay had already filled up in-country. HCMC was a blast. We ate something every 45 minutes, got massages, made jokes, played cards, and just had a great time. The only downside was that it was my first time really feeling homesick. Then we had dinner for $4 and came home to a house that someone else cleaned, and all was well again.

The other post-holiday highlight was Gavins birthday trip to Mondulkiri in eastern Cambodia. We rented a car, packed it full of ourselves and headed on our first road trip of 2013. Of course that also meant learning how to drive here. Within 24 hours I managed to get pulled over for having my headlights on during the day (seriously), talked the cop down from a $5 bribe to a $1 bribe, but otherwise had a lovely time behind the wheel. There is no driving like developing world driving, but we managed a total of roughly 30 hrs of it without seeing anything/anyone die, so huzzah for us!

Mondulkiri was perfect. We really wanted a vacation where it was just the three of us, in woods, feeling not so sweaty, and it delivered. We stayed at the super funky and fun Nature Lodge, complete with free roaming cows, horses, and dogs. The entire five days consisted of eating, drinking, reading, sleeping, wearing pants, hiking, petting elephants, and not sweating in the shower. Muy bueno!

The trip also had its dark side, as it seems most things do here. Cambodias natural resources are essentially being auctioned off in pieces to the highest bidder. Driving to Mondulkiri was one long journey through environmental destruction. The rubber plantations that are sweeping Cambodia have replaced huge swathes of once rich ecosystems, not to mention the communities they supported. There were a lot of sad/stunned silences driving through scenes of stumps for miles with burning all around us. You all know how Gavin and I feel about the trees.

Luckily, we spent some time at Elephant Valley Project, which has become an emerald oasis in the middle of the crazy. We spent a great day there, rejuvenating our souls in the forest with some sweet rescued elephants. Of course, we're now totally committed to single-handedly restoring at least 15% of Cambodias lost tree cover before we leave. Gavin is freakishly strong and I am a great "leader", so it shouldn't be a big deal.

There's actually lots more going on, but since I myself cant focus for more that 4.5 minutes at a time, I wont expect the same from you. I'm going to pull it together and post another seminal piece of work soon. Here are some pictures! (you'll see we're not really getting much better at the picture-making....)

Yay! First dinner of a billion dinners.

PP bustop.

Amazing sugar flowers for cupcakes

Holy mary.

Imagine it's not blurry, and instead is really pretty and reflects how lovely all of the streets in downtown Saigon looked.

Party time.

Monisha 2013!

Sometimes husbands get sooo tired when wives want to dance.

All the time is time to work out.

Great bar concept.

So nice.

Motherland.

One of 5,000 yummy things we consumed in three days.

Drool-town.

Sidewalk Iced Coffee lady. Flavor of the day is diabetic coma.

FIERCE

Hard to capture, but Saigon really does Christmas/New Years up.

Picture of picture of street chicken.

And then Mondulkiri!

Typical.

Smoke. All the time smoke.

Sun smoke.

Gavins candle light birthday beers.

WE FEEL COLD! Snuggle buddies under a mosquito net.

The "treehouse" at the main lodge.

So nice.

Honestly, I had no idea that this is what pineapple mama's and babies look like.

Tree ladder.

One chapter, one pitcher.

A mellow walk= 5 barking dogs.

Daisy spotted by cows.

So cute.

Not so much.

Safe distance.

Our sweet little cabin.

And swimming pool....

Waiting at the top of the crazy ladder to the lower falls.

Nothing a '97 Camry cant handle.

Vertigo.

Objects in picture are bigger than they appear.

Wyoming, is that you?

An intermission here to talk about the regular event that is Gavin eating too many chilis. Here is the bowl. Below is the process. Sound effects include violent hiccuping.